The career you decide to pursue will have a significant effect on your enjoyment of life and how fulfilled you feel. It’s not always possible to find work in the role you’d most like, and most people have to take on jobs they’d rather not do at some point in their lives so they can pay the bills. However, one of your most important goals should be finding a job that you love doing – you’ll be spending a major part of your life at work, so earning a living in an industry that you find rewarding is one of the best ways to lead a happy and fulfilled life. If you have an interest in and a talent for growing plants, then there are a wide variety of potential jobs in agriculture and horticulture.
Jobs in agriculture
Agriculture isn’t just about the grassroots role of farming. There are many careers open to people who are able to grow and trial new crops, fertilizers, and methods of cultivation. One exciting opportunity that is coming to the fore would be working for a commercial seed company, helping to develop disease resistant crops and plants that will grow in difficult conditions. These companies look at ways to increase yields per hectare and explore the viability of new crops such as Chinese water spinach, or kangkong. This plant only takes three weeks to grow and produce a crop, which means it could have a vital role to play in providing food in the developing world. Working for a commercial kangkong seed supplier like East-West Seeds would give you the chance to use your talents productively, giving you a rewarding career with the benefit that you are helping to address world hunger.
Jobs in horticulture
Becoming a gardener or horticulturalist is a natural choice for green-fingered plant enthusiasts, but again there are far more possibilities than you may realise at first. There are many different roles available, for example, caring for parks and public spaces, landscape architecture, garden design, research and development, nursery growers, and specialist niches for particular families of plant species, as well as the many private yards and gardens you could maintain working for yourself. Think about where your deepest interests lie, and what your strengths are, for instance, if you enjoy meeting people and have good social skills, then a front of house role in a plant centre would suit you far better than being behind the scenes feeding and watering.
If you have a talent for creating clever and innovative garden designs, then pursuing a qualification in this area would help you win jobs as a designer. Or if you relate to the plants better than you do to people, then research and development might be more suitable.
Having a talent for growing plants and crops is one that will give you ample opportunity to find a rewarding career, and you will be making a worthwhile contribution to society. If you have green fingers, don’t waste your skills, go out and find the job that’s right for you.